Azealia Banks has decided that she wants to be called a “singer” now, declaring that she’s leaving rap behind.
Banks broke onto the scene with her debut single 212 back in 2012 and has since then combined singing and rap, releasing one album, 2014’s Broke With Expensive Taste.
She’s prepping for the release of another project called Fantasea II but it seems, for now at least, she won’t be rapping on it because she’s “tired of rapping”.
“I’m honestly tired of rapping, the rap scene and the whole rap-girl persona,” she wrote on her Facebook after requesting to be called a singer.
“Considering dropping my last name and just going by “Azealia” and not rap for a while. I’m really tired of being that girl. It’s not me.”
According to Banks, she only started rapping because her acting career “wasn’t moving as quickly” as she wanted it to. Rap pays her bills but apart from that she labelled it as the reason she feels “so lost and off my path”.
She followed it up with another post writing, “The rapping and rap-girl persona is overshadowing my real dream which is to be a singer.”
It looks like she’s sticking to it too. Last week she dropped a rap-free cover of Spanish song Chega De Saudade by João Gilberto released way back in the 1950s. It’s a pretty stark shift in direction for Banks, following on from the release of her dance-centred mixtape Slay-Z.
Listen: João Gilberto – Chega De Saudade
